Interviews
Speaking out in camp
We got together with him and uh I think maybe four or five of us and we started talking with him and uh, he gave us a pretty good course on the Constitution and all the uh Roosevelt just looked at us like Oriental monkeys and uh that uh all our rights as citizens were stepped on within [inaudible]. So uh, well some of us felt the same way he did and as we organized he was uh deemed as a chairman of the Fair Play Committee. And uh, (clears throat) we held open public meetings in various camps uh various blocks of the camps. We were of course we were explaining what the government did was wrong and it was against the law and that uh we had no rights as citizens and did all this explaining, the information you know to the people and we had standing room only crowds at that time because the draft was a very important uh thing that was uh introduced into the camps.
Date: May 9, 2006
Location: California, US
Interviewer: Lisa Itagaki
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum
Explore More Videos
“Everybody went in like sheep”
(1913-2013) Doctor specializing in obstetrics in Southern California
The horror of Hiroshima after the atomic bombing (Japanese)
(1928 - 2008) Drafted into both the Japanese Imperial Army and the U.S. Army.
Finding out Roosevelt wanted Japan to attack
(1919-2020) Member of the 1800th Engineering Battalion. Promoted Japan-U.S. trade while working for Honda's export division.
Parents expected to be taken by the FBI
(1919-2020) Member of the 1800th Engineering Battalion. Promoted Japan-U.S. trade while working for Honda's export division.
525 Quartermaster Corps
(1919-2020) Member of the 1800th Engineering Battalion. Promoted Japan-U.S. trade while working for Honda's export division.
Fort McClellan soldiers
(1919-2020) Member of the 1800th Engineering Battalion. Promoted Japan-U.S. trade while working for Honda's export division.
Going to camp with the Terminal Island people
(1927-2010) Political Activist
The lawsuit set the standard for restoring people’s rights
(1927-2010) Political Activist
Interned at age fifteen, I saw camp as an adventure
(1927-2010) Political Activist